Hook and hang or grate?

[Thomassen]

I'll be smoking a 6.5 boneless (tied) pork butt tomorrow. It's my first boneless. Should I hook and hang or place it on the grate?

[goosebr160]

Hook and hang until 160ish, then grate.

[JeffJ]

Just one butt? I posed this question before. The general consensus was that hanging offered no improvement over using the grate. I’d use the grate and not mess with the hooks or risk it falling into the fire.

As for wood....pecan, hickory and apple all pair well with pork butt.

[Thomassen]

Only 7 people. 1 butt (Berkshire). Picked up from the local butcher shop, $3.99 per pound.

[kamileon]

I just cooked two boneless butts both at the 7lbs mark. I hung them both till they stalled at 175 then wrapped them and put them on the grate. No issues with them falling off the hooks.

[Spinaker]

Hang it, make sure to use four hooks and daisy-chain them. Would let them ride all the way, or to about 185 F to ensure that you have enough bark before wrapping. Generally, I go all the way to the mid 190's.

[Thomassen]

I hung it and it turned out great. Hung for 5 hours until 170 degrees, than wrapped for 2 more hours until an internal of 200 degrees. Had to foil a couple of holes for a while. Barrel temp started at 350, dropped to 320 for after 20 minutes, then up to 360. Temp around 350 for about 2 hours. Total cook time: 7 hours 15 min. Can't wait to do it again.

[Jerod Broussard]

PBC Butt rocks!

[abandonedbrain]

Thomassen VERY nice! If you're running hot, either throw some weight on top of the lid, or next time light a couple fewer briqs in your chimney (assuming that's your method). I found I need to start 35-36 in the chimney, and I can now sit at 270F for 3-4 hours at a time without any tweaks!

[fzxdoc]

That looks soooo good! Congrats Thomassen , on a great PB cook.

For me when PBC temps ride north of 300ish there's a lid leak going on.

[New2Cue]

I hang using four hooks, with the fat cap up, then grate once I wrap. I'm sure using the grate is perfectly fine too, unless you're cooking multiple things and need the room.

[johnec00]

I did two 8-pound boneless butts last week. Cut them more or less in half and tied the "half" where the bone had been. Cooked all 4 on the grate, wrapped 2 at ~170º and left the other 2 bare. Turned out just fine, here's a picture of some of the finished product.

[fzxdoc]

I'm too lazy to grate my pork butts. Hate spending cleanup time washing the dirty grate. One of the best features of the PBC is the 5 minute (or less) cleanup. Hooks go into dishwasher and ash gets dumped. Boom. Cleanup done.

For PBs, hang 'em high, is my motto, using daisy chained hooks as Spinaker pointed out, and let 'em ride all the way unless they seem loosey goosey at 160-180°F. Then you can move them to the grate if you're nervous.

I like using these silicone bands to snug up the PBs with before hooking and hanging. They come away more smoothly than string does.



Kathryn

[Spinaker]

The bands works great, especially on the shoulders that have the bone trimmed out.